One sentence
Posted by Tomaz Lasic on 18 March, 2009
Good news travels fast. ‘Sticky’ ideas even faster.
In her recent comments, fellow teacher and moodler Mary Cooch (known also as @moodlefairy) mentioned how the staff at their school spend a couple of minutes of their weekly meetings talking about their use of Moodle in the classroom. I loved the idea and in the brief email exchange that followed hinted that I will try to use it here at our school too.
This afternoon, I had a cryptic staff meeting agenda item called ‘Share’.
When I got my turn to speak, I simply asked:
‘Could you please share ONE thing or strategy you have found Moodle useful for in your classroom.”
Silence. Tick, tock, tick, tock – 15 seconds.
Then it opened. What followed was just about the best 8 minutes of my three years at this school – 10 short stories, 10 people, 10 different uses, 10 different skill levels. Genuine, specific, relevant, encouraging … and more we haven’t heard because of the crammed agenda.
As I write this, an email popped into my inbox from a colleague Aaron. This is the last sentence from it:
“What took place in today’s staff meeting is exceptionally rare, so from one colleague to another, well done”
I find myself happy and sad at the same time.
Sad? Because, as Aaron says, it is exceptionally rare. Making such things standard practice won’t change a few staff meetings – it will change the profession we are in.
March 18th, 2009 at 4:09 pm
Collaboration. Peer-mentoring. Celebrating success…Nah it’ll never catch on
Well done Tomaz and please pass on my congratulations to the volunteers who stepped up to share with their colleagues – They are inspirational!
March 18th, 2009 at 9:55 pm
That’s great! I wish I could get 8 minutes of this sort of interaction. I’ll aspire to it!
March 29th, 2009 at 4:36 am
My special education students have not taken a pencil and paper spelling assessment all year long. They take all of their tests on Moodle. We are not only demonstrating spelling, but honing reading. Results 100% TAKS mastery in Reading.